MIT Researchers Promise an Internet That's 100x Faster and Cheaper

Computerworld: Researchers at MIT say that a change to router architecture could make the Internet 100 to 1,000 times faster and dramatically reduce the costs of high-speed data access. Team leader Vincent Chan says that replacing electrical signals within routers with optical ones, using a technique they call "flow switching," could achieve both goals by reducing bottlenecks.

But don't expect the new technology to be in place right away. Analysts note that converting to the new type of routers would be expensive.